LIGHT AND CONSCIENCE
LIGHT AND CONSCIENCE
The great subject of John’s first epistle is light. The object of the epistle is that we may know that we have eternal life (1 John. 5: 13).
Man at the fall got a conscience by doing evil; he had departed from an innocent state, to which we never [p. 328] return. God knows evil, because it is the opposite to good. Every trace of God is new to the fallen man; hence, on conversion, he is made acquainted with God, the only One who is good. Up to this he had a standard of his own, according as conscience acted, which he seldom was quite up to, though, in some cases, as Saul of Tarsus, he might be able to say, “I have lived in all good conscience” (Acts 23: 1). The moment God comes in before the soul, the sense of the really good makes the sense of man’s immeasurable distance from it almost intolerable. Saul of Tarsus falls on the ground. The thief on the cross fears God, admits the justice of his sentence. Now henceforth, after God, the really good, is reached, the sense of my disparity and distance morally from Him is ever increasing. The bad is very bad, as the good becomes known as very good. If I turn to the bad, or incline to it, there is the sense in my soul that I have turned away from the good - from God; but as I walk as a child of light, I am sensibly distanced from the bad, and the Holy Spirit bears me witness in my conscience. Hence the danger of putting away conscience from faith. If you have faith, you require to keep a good conscience; that is, that you are up to your faith. The demand God has on you is really conscience, and the demand increases as the knowledge of His mind increases. If I do not keep up to this, I make shipwreck. I believe in what is revealed, but I do not see that it distances me from the bad that is in me. The good is accepted, without its claim or power on me being accepted. The virtue of the word is lost, I am like the deaf adder. This is the great importance of speaking to the understanding, for otherwise the conscience cannot be reached.
When I am truly before God, every fresh ray of His light affects my conscience; I have a greater sense of good, and I am more sensibly distanced from the bad, not only that which is outside of me, but that which is in me. If not, the man with Ephesian truth [p. 329] will drop into the worst immoralities, because he can speak of what is highest without repudiating and rebuking what is of the old man. Hence, in John’s epistle light is the polar star; light is for fellowship, light for brotherly love; and if your heart condemn you, in action towards your brother, God is greater than your heart. I suppose it is the heart in John, because the affections are under the control of the conscience. “If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God” (1 John 3: 21). God has more light than I have, but I act according to my light, and thus communion, or confidence, is not disturbed.
Believe me, it is very unsound teaching which does not touch the conscience, making me feel how good God is, and the consequent claim on me, if I am His; how evil man is, and what a distance there is between good and evil. By-and-by I shall know evil because I know good, and am for ever in it. The man who would save his conscience will not long continue safe. The more conscientious any man is, the more carefully he investigates a new truth, because he feels that, if accepted, it must make a fresh demand on him. Man is to be more repudiated, and Christ maintained.